Those two topics—ambition and the imitation of Christ—might sound contradictory, but I don’t think they need to be if we affirm the whole counsel of God. They were two of the themes I hit on yesterday at Band of Bloggers.
A couple of things I quoted from:
First, Dave Harvey’s excellent, soon-to-be-released book, Rescuing Ambition:
[A wrong understanding of humility] quenches a lot of evangelical fire. Humility, rightly understood, shouldn’t be a fabric softener on our aspirations. When we become too humble to act, we’ve ceased being biblically humble. True humility doesn’t kill our dreams; it provides a guardrail for them, ensuring that they remain on God’s road and move in the direction of his glory.
I also quoted from Jason Hood’s 2009 WTJ article, “The Cross in the New Testament: Two Theses in Conversation with Recent Literature (2000-2007).”
He posits two theses, and I focused briefly on the second:
- The biblical doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is the most assailed, most controversial, and most assured result of recent work on the cross.
- The biblical teaching on the imitation of the crucified Christ is the most neglected aspect of recent work on the NT message of the cross.
On the second thesis, he writes: “This neglect is particularly acute among works produced in Reformed and evangelical circles.”
In addition to a focus on the accomplishment of the cross, I hope we can have a renewal or recovery of teaching and living along these lines as well:
Jesus and his cross are presented as a model for imitation, and many NT passages model or command the engagement of believers in mimetic, self-sacrificial suffering for the kingdom and for others after his pattern, particularly in his crucifixion. These passages include the following: Mark 8:31-38; 9:30-35; 10:32-45 (and parallels); John 13:12-17, 34-35; 15:12-13; Acts 20:33-35; Rom 8:17; 15:1-7; 1 Cor 4:8-17; 8:13–9:27; 10:31–11:1; 15:30-32; 2 Cor 1:3-10; 4:7-18; 5:14-15; 6:3-12; 8:9; 11:23–12:18; 13:3-4; Gal 5:24; 6:14, 17; Eph 5:1-2, 25-28; the whole of Philippians, especially 2:1-11; Col 1:24; 1 Thess 1:5-6; 2 Thess 3:7-10; 2 Timothy as a whole; Heb 12:1-4; 1 Pet 2:21-23; 1 John 3:16-18. The imitation of Jesus, above all in the cross, consistently arises as one of the NT’s primary applications of the meaning of the cross. Such cross-shaped missional suffering in the pattern of Jesus must be regarded as a crucial component for teaching the NT’s message of the cross.
(For more on Dr. Hood’s writing, see this group blog.)
